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The Houston Zoo, located at 6200 Hermann Park Drive in Houston, TX connects communities with animals to inspire action to save wildlife and is committed to being a leader in the global effort to save animals in the wild. The Houston Zoo is home to over 6,000 permanent residents including two brand new pygmy marmosets for whom they provide the highest standard in animal care.

Each year, The Houston Zoo welcomes over two million guests to experience their incredible animals and ecosystems, and through their admission ticket or membership, help the Houston Zoo to fund the protection efforts of the counterparts of every species at the Zoo, in the wild. Through guests visiting the Zoo, they support 49 wildlife conservation projects in 27 countries around the world. They are proud to be the second most visited Zoo in the US, and the most-attended cultural attraction in the region.

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In 2020, The Houston Zoo welcomed several new additions, including Nelson the Asian elephant, Kivuli the okapi, Peter Rabbit the Schmidt’s red-tailed monkey, three bongos, a blue-throated macaw, and more. Thanks to the support of visitors to the Houston Zoo, the organization recycled 225 pounds of electronic devices, with a total of 762 cell phones, which is helping save animals like bongos and okapi in the wild by reducing the demand for new materials to be mined. 

The Houston Zoo also unveiled the first-in-the-nation South America’s Pantanal exhibit that highlights the tropical wetlands of Brazil and the animals that they are helping protect in the wild, including giant anteaters, tapirs, and more. In 2020, the Houston Zoo provided support to monitor 10 wild giant anteaters. The data collected from these individuals will inform future wildlife protection plans in Brazil, including safer road-crossing solutions to protect them and other animals. 

In mid-November of 2020, The Houston Zoo's renovated orangutan habitat reopened to the public after 4.5 months. Home to Rudi, Kelly, Cheyenne, and Aurora, plus four different endangered Asian turtle species, this remodeled space features enhanced climbing structures and enrichment opportunities for the orangutans. In 2020, the Zoo has supported the replanting of over 150,000 trees in palm oil plantations to save orangutans, elephants, clouded leopards, and their habitat in Borneo. 

Since 2007, the Houston Zoo has been working hard to make sure the Houston toad doesn’t disappear from Texas forever. About 600 toads live permanently at the Houston Zoo and these toads have a very important job – make more Houston toads. In 2020, we released 899,700 Houston toad eggs into the wild to save this Texas species from extinction. The Houston Zoo also worked hard to release 57 Attwater’s prairie chickens back into the wild this year. The Zoo has been working tirelessly to save the Attwater’s prairie chicken from extinction since 1995, and are committed to protecting this Texas native species.  

These are just a few of the many accomplishments of the Houston Zoo in 2020 alone, one of the worst years in recent history. I know all of us here in Houston are looking forward to getting back to normal and I, for one, can't wait to take my daughters back to the Houston Zoo. 

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